Category: History

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

Retirement Road-Trip

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of weeks ago I revealed the first 2 pitstops / overnight stays of my upcoming retirement road-trip. You can read that original blog post here.

The first 5 days of my road-trip are mostly planned-out intentionally. I’m driving a little over 1,200 miles from my home in the Heartland of Florida to North Texas (Dallas area), so I spaced it out as good as I could in order to accommodate the memorials, monuments, museums, and nouns (persons, places, and things) that I wish to see along the way.

I’m spending Night 3 in Natchez Mississippi – overlooking the mighty Mississippi River. I spent a night there on my last road-trip to North Texas in November of 2021. I was able to take a few photos of the surrounding area around my hotel, and then the sun set right after that. For this upcoming trip I plan to arrive earlier in the afternoon so that I can visit one (or both) of the following historic homes / museums – Historic Auburn, and the Rosalie Mansion. Also – I hear that Magnolia Grill is the place to enjoy delicious food, so I’ll check it out. I was planning to eat dinner there on my last visit, but it got dark fast, and I didn’t want to drive around town at night. Sunset will be at 1927 (7:27 PM) CDT the night I’m there, so I should be good for this visit.

From Natchez I’m headed westward into Louisiana – mostly along U.S. 84 – and then northward – mostly along U.S. 59 – to Marshall Texas. That’s my pitstop for Night 4. I hope to visit the Starr Family Home while I’m there. I need to do more research on Marshall to see what else I may wish to visit, and of course – I need a good restaurant to enjoy dinner at.

On the 5TH day – I arrive at my destination where my family lives. I’ll be in North Texas for 9 days.

Next #TravelThursday – ALL ABOARD on the Sugar Express. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Food Geography History Travel

Tampa Bay History Center

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Saturday I visited the Tampa Bay History Center with about 30 of my Sebring Historical Society friends. We left our own museum (via charter bus) just before 8 AM, and we got to the Tampa Bay History Center (downtown on Water Street) right at 10 AM. Our docent was waiting for us up on the 2ND floor. (The museum is 4 stories with the bottom / ground floor serving mostly as the main entrance. All of the exhibits are on the 2ND, 3RD, and 4TH floors.)

It’s a very nice modern museum (built from 2007 to 2009). Our docent led us on a tour of the 2ND and 4TH floors, and we also watched a couple of short films. (The 3RD floor was self-guided.) There were lots of interesting and informative permanent and temporary exhibits supporting the history of the Tampa Bay area. (I especially liked the Roaring ’20s temporary exhibit.)

We spent 3 hours at the museum, but you can easily spend much of the day there, as there is plenty to see for all ages. (They are open daily from 10 AM to 5 PM.)

A few of us were also looking at that multi-story museum (built up instead of out) as an idea for our own future museum / offices / archives / conference center space somewhere near downtown Sebring. (Right now we’re bursting at the seams with a cramped standalone museum and offices and archives packed like sardines in leased space located underneath the city’s public library.)

After our museum visit we enjoyed a very nice buffet lunch at the historic (120-year-old) Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. The restaurant sits on an entire city block (East 7TH Avenue between North 21ST & 22ND Streets). It is perhaps the largest Spanish restaurant in the world at 52,000 square-feet. It can handle up to 1,700 customers at one time. It was very busy on this Saturday afternoon. (We had our own private dining room up on the 2ND floor.)

It was another fun field trip with my Sebring Historical Society friends. I’m looking forward to finding out the next destination !

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll reveal the next two likely pitstops on my upcoming retirement road-trip to North Texas. One overlooks the mighty Mississippi, and one is in East Texas where U.S. 80 and U.S. 59 meet. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Driving Geography History Travel

Retirement Road-Trip

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. During the first 3 weeks of April – I’ll be on a retirement road-trip – so-called because I’ll be enjoying the open road as a newly minted American retiree with lots of free time on my hands. It’s a road-trip that I’ve been imagining in my mind for many years now. It’s a road-trip that I’ve been practicing for the past 35 years.

I was originally going to embark on this road-trip not knowing what I would see, who I would see, and where I would go with each new day. But the more I thought about it – the more I worried that it would be a bit chaotic. I did not want chaos to be a part of this adventure, so recently I determined a departure date from home, an arrival date in North Texas (where family lives), a departure date from North Texas, and an approximate end date of my road-trip. I’ve also created pitstops along the way, so I know about how many hours and miles I plan to drive each day on the road, and which towns I plan to spend the night in.

Night 1 will be spent in Gadsden County Florida near Quincy – a western suburb of Tallahassee. Night 2 will be spent in Mobile Alabama. I’ll be leaving Quincy fairly early in the morning so that I can pull-in to Mobile later that same morning and maximize my time sightseeing around town. My first stop will likely be the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park. I’ve driven by it so many times, and I’ve always wanted to check it out. I also hope to visit the historic (built in 1855) Bragg-Mitchell Mansion. Finally – time and weather-permitting – I hope to check out the Mobile Botanical Gardens. If I don’t make it to the Gardens on this day – then it’ll be on my list of places to visit the next time I’m in town. I really like the Mobile area. There’s so much history to see all around, and I have friends who live in the area who are part of my personal history in Homestead Florida.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write all about the Tampa Bay History Center. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Blogging Food History Travel

Titanic

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. Last Friday afternoon and evening I visited Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition on Orlando Florida’s famous and thriving International Drive. I went with a bus of 40 fellow passengers. It was a Sebring Historical Society hosted daytrip that left our own museum in downtown Sebring at 3:15 PM and returned by 10:45 PM. (We were at the Titanic museum, dinner, and show for 3½ hours.)

The entire experience from start to finish greatly exceeded my expectations. The museum tour / show technically starts the moment you walk through the front entrance, and it continues on through the multi-course dinner (which plays out like a fun singing and dancing revue). As you can imagine it’s a happy and joyful gala at the start of the journey (and through dinner), but then after dinner – disaster strikes, and the show and its players take a solemn and somber tone out of respect for the real-life victims of that cruise. (Out of 2,240 passengers and crewmembers – over 1,500 perished at sea.)

You can actually visit the museum during the daytime for your own self-guided tour, or you can visit the museum as part of the overall 3-hour dinner and show experience. It is definitely worth the admission price. Check out their official web site (hyperlinked at the top) for all of the details.

You know – not once during the dinner experience did I hear Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” (from the 1997 Titanic movie). And that’s a good thing. The show’s players kept it to the life and times and sights and sounds of April of 1912.

Next #TravelThursday – it rhymes with Florida – or does it ? Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2024 Christopher M. Day, CountUp